Tag Archives: John Leeson

Doctor Who: Wave Of Destruction. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson, Phil Mulryne, Karl Theobald, Alex Wilton Regan, John Banks.

We take radio for granted now, in much the same way as television, as any device that allows us to hear the words of another several thousand miles away from home, and yet we must remember what it must have been like to experience that sensation for the first time, the moment that radio burst into the home and allowed, for example, cricket fans to enjoy a day at Old Trafford, the first outside broadcast from The Albert Hall, and allow old soldiers to hear The Last Post from fields in France as commemorations of World War One were held to honour the fallen…we take radio for granted, but in the hands of dark forces, that benevolence of human spirit and endeavour can be turned against us

Doctor Who: Wave Of Destruction. Audio Drama Review. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Doctor Who. Dalek Universe: The Dalek Protocol.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Jane Slavin, Joe Simms, Jez Felder, Anna Mitcham, Nicholas Briggs.

Every ending must have a beginning, and every person you have ever said goodbye to, at some point said hello for the first time, such is the issue with Time that sometimes it can feel as though these moments are the wrong way round, maybe even inside out, and our minds have to catch up, have to adapt, or we might find that Time will find a way to erase us from the future to come.

Doctor Who. Dalek Universe: The Dalek Protocol. full post

(422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Paradox Planet/Legacy Of Death. Audio Drama Reviews.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson, Simon Rouse, Tom Chadbon, Paul Panting, Emma Campbell-Jones, Laura Rees, Bryan Pilkington, Jane Slavin, John Banks.

The good old days of the multi-parter, where a story line could be really explored and taken beyond the realms of the expected 45 minutes, where the imagination not only gets fed, it is sated and not feeling as if it has been left out of the desert and wine list that inevitably follows a good dinner; all things are more possible in the land of the large and truly delved into story.

Doctor Who: The Paradox Planet/Legacy Of Death. Audio Drama Reviews. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Wave Of Destruction. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson, Phil Mulryne, Karl Theobald, Alix Wilton Regan.

The insurrection of music in the 1960s, of having the bravery to go against Government control and play songs that not only inspire the young but in which the world now turns, was a battle that was worthy of any high sea drama and one that was important to win; one side in the war to play music that people actually wanted to hear against a near tyranny who wanted impose their own set of rules and standards…a war that that the unfortunate side effect of allowing advertising to creep ever further into the world and something far more disturbing.

Doctor Who: Wave Of Destruction. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Fate of Krelos/Return To Telos. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Frazer Hines, Michael Cochrane, Veronica Roberts, Bernard Holley, Nicholas Briggs.

The name Telos is enough to have long term fans of Doctor Who reaching for the nearest bottle of glee and asking their friends and neighbours to pour it all over them without hesitation or complaint. Telos, the stuff of legends, it’s up there with Mondas and St. Paul’s Cathedral in terms of iconic homes for the Cybermen.

Revisiting Telos though is problematic for The Doctor, for a start getting in the way of a previous incarnation is always going to stir up agitation.

Doctor Who: The Fate of Krelos/Return To Telos. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(506 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Death Match. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Geoffrey Beevers, Susan Brown, Damien Lynch, Andy Secombe, Chris Porter.

Death has always walked side by side with The Doctor that at times its hard to see where the join might be. One such clue is where the rotting shell of The Master is, Death surely is playing a more dangerous game with him than with the Doctor.

Following on directly from John Dorney’s Requiem For The Space Men, Death Match is a suitable sequel in which Big Finish asks the pertinent questions of what it means to be entertained.

Doctor Who: Death Match. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Requiem For The Rocket Men. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Geoffrey Beevers, Mark Frost, Olivia Poulet, Damian Lynch, Pat Ruins.

The renegade Timelord from Gallifrey is fighting for his life in a trap. Considered to be lethal, dangerous and with a personality that can be abrasive and charming, the Universe’s greatest bounty hunters are in for a slice of the reward money placed temptingly before them, for after all would rank so high in the list of most wanted criminals than The Master.

Doctor Who: Requiem For The Rocket Men. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Exxilons. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Daisy Dunlop, Jacqueline King, Hugh Ross, Tim Treloar.

How far does humanity as a collective have the right to impose its culture and future upon any as yet untouched civilisations? The morality to ask those who have the honour to guide themselves to the point where if they want to share the same path that they should do it with a helping hand, not be forced to do so or supply their lives in the profit not of their making.

Doctor Who: The Exxilons. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(532 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Swarm. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, John Leeson, Mandi Symonds, Maggie Service, John Heffernan, Phyllida Nash, Siobhan Redmond, John Dorney, Paul Panting.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, preferably being poured from a bucket with ice cubes the size of Norwegian glacier formation and over the head of someone you don’t like whilst they are sunbathing. Failing that, to be mastered in the form that Science Fiction adores, with plenty of back story and with an enemy that doesn’t quite fit the top echelons of master criminals or war mongering civilisations.

Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Swarm. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(651 words, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Final Phase, Big Finish Audio Play 2.07.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson, David Warner, Toby Hadoke, Dominic Mafham, Jane Slavin, Nicholas Briggs, John Dorney.

If for nothing else, and to be fair there is a lot of emotion running through this last episode of Tom Baker’s second series for Big Finish. For fans of the classic series of Doctor Who, the final moments and words of May Tamm as the compelling Lady Romana as she admits to want to carry on travelling with The Doctor in the Tardis and keep an eye on him are filled with a deep and lasting regret as this would be the last the devotees and story addicts will ever get to hear new and well-polished expressions by one of the finest actors to step on board the Tardis.

Doctor Who: The Final Phase, Big Finish Audio Play 2.07. full post

(532 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)